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Preface

All facts and information contained in this encyclopedia are TM and copyright by
Lucasfilm Ltd., except as noted. Information which has been copyrighted by LFL is not used
with expressed permission, but is intended to help readers expand their knowledge of the
Star Wars universe.

This document may not be redistributed with the consent of the author. I've worked too
long and hard on this to have it pirated. E-mail me
at bobvitas@nc.rr.com if you want to copy information from it.

Some Information on This Encyclopedia

This encyclopedia was created from all Lucasflim-licensed
sources of

Star Wars information. It was
created without regard for what is "canon" what is not "canon" in the Star Wars universe. I have spoken with several respected members of the
Star Wars community, both officially and unofficially, and many have grown to consider the
Marvel tales as "myths and legends" within the Star Wars timeline. As such, they may or may
not have happened exactly as retold in the Marvel comics. Think of it this way: when the
United States Mens' Hockey Team won the Gold Medal at the 1980 Winter Olympics in Lake
Placid, NY, it was considered the "Miracle on Ice." The stories of the US players have been
well-documented by the US press. Imagine, though, the stories of those hockey games as told
through the eyes of the Russian players who lost in the semi-finals. They would tell a
starkly different picture of the exact same events. I've come to think of the Marvel comics
as retellings of events which occurred during the Galactic Civil War, from the perspective
of those individuals who were in the background while the action was taking place.

It was first made available to friends in 1994, after about 2 ? years of work. I had
been compiling information in a few text files, since I hadn't read any of the West End
Games material when Heir to the Empire came out. Thus, I was completely at a loss
as to what a Lancer-class frigate was. As it grew, I realized that this was bigger
than the text files I had started with, so I tried out WordPerfect. Once I got everything
converted over, and started really getting it presentable, I printed out the First
Edition.

I kept working on it, especially when I learned about the scope of the
West End Games material and the width of Bantam Spectra's deal to
produce new novels. My free time, as I knew it, would be forever changed!

When I got the HTML plug-in for WordPerfect, I knew it was time to "go public." That
first HTML converter took about 14 hours to complete the entire encyclopedia (which was
about 2 Megabytes in size as a WP60 file), and my AOL account could only handle about 15
letters of the alphabet. I am indebted to those readers who started visiting my website
back then, and who clamored for more information. After trying a couple other converters
in an effort to get that 14-hour time down, I gave up on WordPerfect and migrated to
Word 97. (This was a tough choice, since I am not Bill Gates' biggest fan by any stretch
of the imagination!) The HTML code converted in about 10 minutes, from a set of files
which was now about 5 Megabytes in total. All this meant that I had more time to figure
out how to make the encyclopedia presentable.

I moved my ISP from AOL to Mindspring, and was able to get the full encyclopedia
uploaded. However, I was limited to 450 Megabytes of transfer per month, which at first
was OK. But, as the prequels started getting headlines, I would hit that mark every once
in a while. When the prequels were about a year away, I would hit it every month. It was
at this time that MosEisley.com offered to
host my encyclopedia. I hesitated, not sure if I should move. However, as the prequels
approached and I starting hitting my limit by the 15th of each month, I was
getting as frustrated as my readers. So, I agreed to their offer and moved to their
server. Thanks, Matt and Stan!

Of course, things always look greener across the fence, and I began to get a lot of
notes from readers asking me to send them the files via e-mail. While the server was
handling the HTML code pretty well, downloads were only completing about half the time.
This was getting to be a hassle, as was the week where the site was down for an unknown
reason. Also, space started to become an issue, prohibiting me from putting up lots of
pictures and graphics. Thus, I took a sabbatical from MosEisley.com and started hunting
for a new home. Amazingly, I found one almost immediately at
TheForce.Net. They agreed to give me a ton of space and all the help I
needed. While I had this before, I was now part of one of the largest Star Wars sites
on the Internet. TheForce.Net had already recongized my encyclopedia as a cool site, and
now it was on its way to become the Star Wars encyclopedia on the Internet.

This edition marks the beginning of my second year with
TheForce.Net,
and together we've reached new and existing readers with more ease than ever. The migration
from an MS Word document to an Access database, with ASP code handling the web pages instead
of static HTML, has meant that I can get information to readers much faster. Thanks to
readers like you, I've been transferring well over 4 Gigabytes of data each month! I'm
also indebted to the readers who have written back, pointing out problems and offering
suggestions, in an effort to make this the most complete and comprehensive encyclopedia
available! I rally do enjoy reading your correspondences and answering your questions.
Keep 'em coming!

It is impossible to create a document like this from such a huge body of knowledge
without finding some inconsistencies and errors. Every author who has written in the
Star Wars universe has commented on it and dealt with it. Lucasfilm has
final say on the material I drew from, and it makes no claim that the material is 100
percent compatible with George Lucas' vision of the Star Wars universe. So, if there are errors or inconsistencies, I have
tried to note them as appropriate.

It is important to note that this massive work could not have been completed (like it
will ever be complete!) without help from a number of sources. They are all noted in the
Acknowledgements section. I just hope I didn't leave anyone out!

I have also tried to document the source of my encyclopedia entries at all times. The
bibliography at the end of this encyclopedia is quite extensive, and I have tried to
indicate with each entry which source it came from. If an entry is not sourced, it means
that I could not remember where I found it. If you find an unsourced or inaccurately
sourced entry, please e-mail me!. The source
listed is the first reference to an entry. If there are multiple sources listed, then
all sources listed contributed some information to the encyclopedia.

Notes on Encyclopedia Entries

All entries are listed alphabetically, with the assumption
that numerals come after letters. There are many cross-references to other listings, and
they should all refer to a full description somewhere in the encyclopedia.

The names of human characters are listed alphabetically by last name. Being a human from
Earth, I used the standard American phonebook listing for all
Star Wars humans. Thus, if you want to look up Han Solo, you need
to search in the S section under Solo, Han. If a human only goes by
a single name (i.e., Roa), then you simply look up that single name.

Non-human names, however, are listed alphabetically by the initial part of their name.
This is because I chose not to impose Earth-bound human standards on
Star Wars alien races. Thus, if you are trying to locate Momaw Nadon,
you need to look under Momaw Nadon. As with single-named humans, aliens who
one have one word to their names are listed by that name (eg., Garindan).

If a character's race is unknown, their name is listed as it appears in the source.